Entries in Brexit
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I was reading VW’s Transform 2025+ strategy plan for the next decade, and wondering how it made any more sense than its current strategy; if you can call cheating on emission tests, buying every unattached car brand available, and running it all with an iron fist from Wolfsburg a strategy. Dr. Herbert Diess, the chairman of VW’s Board of Management, is fronting a three-pronged plan that is long on promises, short on substance.

Diess is correct in dumping the unprofitable models from the company’s portfolio, restructuring the company, thinning the ranks of redundant or excess workers, and putting VW on a sound financial basis. In addition, the company’s North American business will focus on SUVs and “limousines” (sedans), strongly expanding its offerings in these areas. Though it must be said, this part of his “transformation” plan was already in place, with the new Atlas SUV (at least Diess killed the Teramont name the Germans had planned for it) leading the way. This “SUV offensive” even will be used in China to solidify VW’s “top of volume” positioning that is critical to Diess’s plans. (China and Europe are the only two areas in which VW is positioned at the top end of the volume segment, close to its premium competition.) Ironically, development of economy segment vehicles for China, Russia, South America and India also is of paramount importance toVW’s future.